Laughing Dog Arts: Stitch Alchemy

Friday, February 5, 2010

Stitch Alchemy

I recently participated in a book study on the yahoo group Mixed Media Art Friends run mainly by Belinda Spiwak. The book was by Kelli Nina Perkins titled Stitch Alchemy. Kelli participated in the group too so it was a lot of fun and much colorful art was, and still is being created. Kelli offered to send a gift to anyone who posted some of their work created through the book to the photo albums of the mmartfriends and then left a comment on her blog http://ephemeralalchemy.blogspot.com/ She was true to her word and I received this lovely little booklet from her yesterday. It is made with her hand painted, stamped, stitched fabric paper and has pages inside, some are also painted or stamped or made from recycled papers. What a delightful surprise! Thanks Kelli! Her book, Stitch Alchemy is full of so much saturated color and great ideas for creating useful or whimsical items, it was fun to work through it and I'm going to be referring to it for a long time.

Be well.

7 comments:

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...: Oh my gosh....how cool is that??? Love the colors.
Will have to check her blog later, when I know I can have lights AND computer running! LOL!!!

XXOO!!
Anne; February 5, 2010 at 3:23 PM
Jan said...: She does some very colorful fun work. Glad you have electicity still, I just checked your weather and see you are probably getting snowed on. It was lovely here today.; February 5, 2010 at 4:23 PM
studio pashnada said...: I finally ordered this book just now - can't wait to start using a little more fabric in my pieces

too bad I gave away 80 gazillion tons of it last summer in prep for moving

happens every time, huh?; February 6, 2010 at 7:53 AM
Jan said...: Sherry, 80 gazillion tons? ha ha, that must have put a dent in your stash. Don't worry, there is always more where that came from!; February 6, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Deena said...: Hi! Anne sent me over - what a fine friend you have in her. I love the dominoes- what are alcohol inks and what other medium do they work on? Can you tell I am not a fiber artists?? Nice to meet you!; February 6, 2010 at 11:44 AM
Jan said...: Hi Fabby and welcome! Yes, Anne is a special person and I am fortunate to be able to call her my friend. Alcohol inks will work best on non porous surfaces like glass and metal. They are permanent but can be lightened or removed with an accompanying product called blending solution. I think the blending solution is basically fingernail polish remover. The inks themselves are very liquid and intense colors, mine are by Adirondack. They dry almost instantly and if you don't wear gloves while you work with them you will have very colorful fingers. You can use them on porous material also, Kelli Perkins published a tutorial on her blog very recently for that. I believe she was coloring some interfacing. They are just another tool but the best thing to use on glass or metal as they are transparent. I covered an old bowling ball with kitchen foil and then colored it with the alcohol inks. It was out in the weather all summer but still retained a lot of color. it did fade some but still looks pretty good. Okay, you asked a simple question, you didn't need a whole books worth of reply! Ha, thanks for becoming my newest follower. Come back soon!; February 6, 2010 at 6:44 PM
Deena said...: Thanks for all the info! If you covered the bowling with foil, how did the inks get onto the ball? Did I miss a step? What a cool idea - the colors are so beautiful. I will have to look into this although I mainly work with cloth.; February 7, 2010 at 10:03 AM